Ladies in Retirement

Ladies in Retirement is a play by English playwrights Edward Percy [1] and Reginald Denham [2].

The original text

A gothic thriller in three acts, based on a famous murder which actually took place at the end of the 19th century, the play is set in 1885. The drama focuses on Ellen Creed, a housekeeper who looks after Leonora Fiske, a retired actress living in the English countryside. When Ellen’s eccentric sisters visit their sibling at Leonora’s home, tensions soon lead to murder. Though the death is carefully covered up, will the murderess get away with her crime, or will she be brought to justice?[3]

Written in 1939, the play was first performed on 12 December 1939, at St James’s Theatre, London, directed by Reginald Denham. With its 1940 Broadway production that starred Flora Robson in the lead role, itd went on to become a huge hit in New York and elsewhere.

Published by Dramatists Play Service, Incorporated, 1943

Translations and adaptations

Filmed in 1941 as an American film noir, directed by Charles Vidor[4]

Translated into Afrikaans entitled Die Rooi Pruik by C.F. Mynhardt, the father of Siegfried Mynhardt. The setting on the Thames estuary has, for the Afrikaans adaptation, been transferred to a similar type of countryside at the Cape between Muizenberg and Wynberg.

Afrikaans translation by Ben de Koker under the title Moord in Mooihawe. Published by DALRO in 1974 (ISBN:0-86064-123-9).

Performance history in South Africa

1942: Produced by Mary Holder for the Combined Dramatic Societies of Cape Town in the Little Theatre, with Margot Lassner (Ellen Creed), Violet Dunlop (Emily Creed), Estelle de Villiers, Minna Millsten (Leonora Fiske), Basil Warner (Albert), Pera Miller and Nell Angles.

1941: Die Rooi Pruik touring during March visiting Krugersdorp, Pretoria and the Library Theatre, Johannesburg. The cast: Siegfried Mynhardt (in the only male role), Maxi Potgieter, Margot van Hoppen, Hansje Hendrikz, Kittie de Villiers, Marie du Preez and Johanna Smuts. Decor by Willem Hendrikz.

1942: Produced in Afrikaans (entitled Die Rooi Pruik) by Siegfried Mynhardt's newly-formed company, starring Berdine Grunewald and Lydia Lindeque.

1945: Die Rooi Pruik was presented at the Library Theatre on 30 April by Die Maskerspelers, starring Siegfried Mynhardt, Maxie Sheridan, Berdine Grünewald, Hansje Hendrikz, Twinkle Hanekom and Anna Marta.

1945: Produced in English by Margaret Inglis for the Munro-Inglis Company, with Nan Munro, Margaret Inglis, Taubie Kushlick, Frank Douglass, Virginia Pilkington, Freda Gray, Jill Shepley at the Standard Theatre. Sets designed by Len Grossett.

1947: Presented in English by the Brian Brooke Company, produced by Will Jamieson, first at the Muizenberg Pavilion and in March at the Hofmeyr Hall, with Petrina Fry, Dorothea Gibson, Don Howie, Brigid Gibbings and others.

1965: Staged in English by Brickhill-Burke Productions, directed by Joan Brickhill and Louis Burke, with Annabel Linder (Lucy), Marjorie Gordon (Leonora Fiske), Edna Jacobson (Ellen Creed), James White (Albert Feather), Patricia Sanders (Louisa Creed), Ann Rudnick (Emily Creed) and Margery Dickie-Clark (Sister Theresa). Decor by Elizabeth Macleish and costumes by Joan Brickhill.

1965: Presented Die Rooi Pruik performed by University Theatre Stellenbosch.

1973: Moord in Mooihawe was produced by the University of the Freestate Department of Drama under the direction of Ben de Koker.

Sources

https://www.josef-weinberger.com/plays-and-pantomime/play/ladies-in-retirement.html

https://theatricalia.com/play/6r9/ladies-in-retirement/production/p6e

https://www.americancinematheque.com/now-showing/ladies-in-retirement-6-2-24/

The Rand Daily Mail, 7 March 1941 (re Die Rooi Pruik).

Trek, 22 May 1942, 18.

Review by Lewis Sowden, The Rand Daily Mail, 1 May 1945 (Die Rooi Pruik 1945 production).

South African Opinion, 2(4):23, 1945; 4(2):20, 1947.

Brooke 1978. 157-8, 162-164.

Tucker, 1997. 20, 26.

Brickhill-Burke theatre programme (undated).

Petru & Carel Trichardt theatre programme collection.

UTS theatre pamphlet

Listing of productions in the UTS programme for Arms and the Man, H.B. Thom Theatre, Stellenbosch, 1968 (held in ESAT Archive)

Performing Arts, HSRC, 1972.

Go to ESAT Bibliography

Return to

Return to ESAT Templates

Return to L in Plays I Original SA Plays

Return to L in Plays II Foreign Plays

Return to L in Plays III Collections

Return to L in Plays IV: Festivals and Pageants

Return to South_African_Theatre/Plays

Return to The ESAT Entries